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Comment by jjordan | Hacker News Reader

Say what you want about the politics, but it's inarguable that Comey, whether he wanted to or not, had become a partisan lightning rod for both sides. The unbiased credibility of the FBI was at stake with Comey at the helm, and this is probably a good move for the country.

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Perhaps the country is better served by someone disliked by both sides than by someone handpicked for their loyalty to Trump.

I have to agree with this, and I want to believe that was the needle Comey was threading. I am concerned, however, that his tone in the last hearing (eg. "mildly nauseous", Abedin email forwarding mistakes, immigrant investigation mistakes, etc.) was so flippant that he was almost asking to be fired. By design or by accident, he's departing more independent now than ever.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought his tone was inappropriate. Leave that for the tabloids to sell, don't bring it into the political institution.

The FBI was investigating the president for colluding with a hostile state to influence the election and aid them against the interests of the US. This is the worst thing to happen to the country since Watergate or longer.

Yeah you can tell the Trump-Russia connections are not a quixotic quagmire by how the stories continue to be filled with weasel words and spend 100% of their column inches not presenting any evidence at all.

The problem is the response from the man himself. This could all have been resolved with the release of his financials and being open regarding his business dealings when he made the decision to step into the role of public servant.

This is a complete guess but I think by the nature of the man and his history of bankruptcy and lying, that making those documents public would start even more controversies, even if they would put the Russia ties to rest (if that were truly the case). I'm guessing that he has been advised by the people who know this to not disclose them at any cost.

Your argument would be a lot more plausible had Trump not done absolutely everything in his power to look guilty as hell on a daily basis. This whole thing could've been shut down months ago with the barest modicum of transparency, integrity, leadership, and honesty from the administration.

Trump could have cleared this up in an instant if he had made even a token effort to behave like a responsible, competent, sane adult professional who cares about his his country and the people who live in it. Instead he has escalated this situation at every opportunity, culminating in this moment, which so far is the low-water mark for how low Trump is willing to sink.

None of what I wrote above has anything to do with whether or not Trump is guilty of treason- if he were 100% innocent and the victim of a political witch hunt, every scrap of the criticism above would still apply to him. However, if Trump is as guilty as he appears to be, this whole situation is infinitely worse- not just for Trump himself but for all Americans. I have often disagreed with aspects of my country's governance (under leadership of both parties), but the last 6 months and this moment in particular is a level of shame, embarrassment, and disgust that I have never felt in my 45 years as an American citizen. I love America and the principles upon which it (at least in theory) was founded, and this is just a fucking disgrace.

It was never getting shut down. This story is never going away. Regardless of the veracity - and I'm not taking sides - the alternative to the Russia narrative isn't up for discussion. HRC, etc. will never answer for having lost an election they had won.

> This whole thing could've been shut down months ago with the barest modicum of transparency, integrity, leadership, and honesty from the administration.

That seems naive to me. This whole Russia smoke/fire thing is the left's version of the Benghazi scandal, IMO. Do you think Democrats are above a partisan stoking of fires to try to shut down their opponents, or is that just something Republicans do?

Whether or not they're above it, there isn't any evidence that they've done it.

They are not remotely similar; Benghazi was investigated multiple times by republicans and each they time found nothing. It was a fake scandal. Dems are merely trying to have an investigation of something that actually happened; we all saw Wikileaks interfere with the election in a partisan manner only releasing things to damage Clinton. It warrants an investigation, it's not fake, it's not being investigated repeated times, they are not comparable situations.

> but the last 6 months and this moment in particular is a level of shame, embarrassment, and disgust that I have never felt in my 45 years as an American citizen.

I personally felt more disgust when we bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital. But I guess Trump's kind of outlandish too.

> Your argument would be a lot more plausible had Trump not done absolutely everything in his power to look guilty as hell on a daily basis.

As a counterpoint:

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak" - Sun Tzu

That would apply if we were talking about a general in a war and his philosophy for dealing with his enemies. It might also be applicable to a metaphorical general in a metaphorical war, like when people use this quote when discussing competition in business. However if a public servant is thinking in these terms about his interactions with his own constituents and his colleagues after taking office, something is seriously wrong with that person. Running for office is a completely different activity than executing the responsibilities of that office after winning it.

When we're talking about not just a public servant, but arguably the public servant with more responsibility on his shoulders than any other human being in America if not the planet, the same principles apply a million times over.

No-one has published _direct_ evidence of collusion, but there's plenty of _circumstantial_ evidence.

I would like to think that if there were solid, credible, _direct_ evidence of collusion then even the House "Freedom Caucus" would be voting for impeachment.

This is way worse than Watergate.

Nixon tried to cover up what were, by comparison, activities of little to no consequence. He didn't even need the extra intel on the Democrats. He already had the election in the bag.

Trump on the other hand, is under investigation for possible collusion with the nation's primary adversary.

Comey was leading an investigation into his campaign and was fired by Sessions who was forced to recuse himself from the investigation after outcries of corruption. You think it's good for the country for him for Comey to be replaced with Trump's replacement?

... depending on who replaces him. If we are going by previous appointments (Jeff Sessions) we could get a complete partisan hack undermining the FBI for political gain.

the appointment needs confirmation, so at least we can hope that some people will say no to obvious patsies.

Your point is not without merit, but this was an abrupt firing rather than a regretful request for resignation. I believe it would be a mistake to judge this by the normal standards of administrative decision-making.

i agree he fucked up, but it strains credulity to think that the timing of this has anything to do with that. so, your first point is correct, but its not a good move for the country because, in all likelihood, its just a way for trump to protect himself from getting busted. i think you are blinded by partisanship if firing Comey now does not raise suspicion in you. if trump is guilty of money laundering / collusion / bribery / ??, which seems reasonably likely to me, it would be better for everyone if that came to light and was punished yes?

Yea dont forget, Many agents said they despised how comey trashed the reputation of the fbi. He even said old friends at the fbi refused to shake his hands.

He muat have been fired to prevent a internal fbi mutiny.

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